Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends

By Phil Hecken, on January 5th, 2014

By Phil Hecken

And so, this is the way the BCS ends — not with a bang, but a whimper. Or not. But either way, the current way of determining a “national champion” is coming to an end tomorrow evening in Pasadena. And it couldn’t come a minute sooner.

I have HATED the BCS since it’s inception (and especially its current incarnation), believing it’s NOT a fair way (or even a smart way, necessarily) to declare one team as “the best.” In past years, we may not have had the best two teams competing for the title, and we’ve had undefeated teams excluded, many times due solely to BS..er BCS politics and computers. Next year, they’ll replace this with a four-team, seeded playoff. And I’ll probably start bitching again then.

I’m not sure a playoff is the answer, but it’s got to be better than what we have now. I grew up during a time when there was no such beast as the BCS, and it was a simpler time — sure, you had “co-champs” and split-champs, and arguments that lasted entire off-seasons. And it was great. You played your season, won your bowl, and that was that. No “style” points and no “computer rankings” and such. So, there wasn’t a declared “national” champion…big deal. Some years it was obvious and some it wasn’t. It was a unique thing the NCAA had going, and then they screwed with it.

I won’t say any more about this, since it’s not uni-related, but after tomorrow night, the NCAA Division 1 teams will join the ranks of every other league and sport, and institute a playoff system. It’s goodbye BCS and not a minute too soon.

Now then.

Today, I’m pleased to bring back Clint Richardson, who I tapped earlier this season to write about The Iron Bowl, and who will today give us a uni-history and preview of the Florida State University Seminoles and Auburn University Tigers, who are meeting up in tomorrow night’s BCS National Championship Bowl. So, without further ado, here we go…

. . . . . . . . .

Auburn and Florida StateBy Clint Richardson

It’s finally time to end wonderful season of college football (especially if you’re an Auburn fan like myself!). This has been such a great season, with great games and (for us) great looking games. Fortunately, the final game of the year and the BCS era will not disappoint gameplay-wise and aesthetically. With two of the most traditional uniforms in the game, we pretty much know how it’s going to look. But how about a look back on the history of this old rivalry.

The Auburn-Florida State game used to be a hot rivalry, which is pretty odd for a game that has only been played seventeen times. Out of those games, Auburn holds a 12-4-1 record. The last time these two played was twenty-four years ago in 1990 in Auburn. The biggest game thus far was played in 1989 at the Sugar Bowl. And they subsequently wore the opposite uniforms in which they are for today’s game. And boy, look at that bowl patch! Here’s the wonderful New Orleans Jazz program from that game. Florida State and Deion Sanders won that game 13-7.

Since Florida State is ranked #1 in the BCS ranking, and Auburn is #2, that means we’ll see them wear red and white respectively.

Which is disappointing, because I can’t be the only one that would love to see a red on blue game! Both of these teams in their home uniforms, in the beautiful stadium of the Rose Bowl with their gorgeously luscious green grass. Oh man, that would look so great! With only a few hours til game time is it still too late to petition?!

Also, expect to see the typical BCS Championship Series logo on the helmets like in years past. Here’s a few different placements of the decal for teams in the past. For Auburn, I would expect it to be placed in the same place as last time, or if anything, on the other side like where the military appreciation logo was placed. I’d place money on same place as last time. As far as Florida State goes, the Seminoles played in last year’s Orange Bowl, and placed the decal in the middle of their helmet. I would easily expect that to hold true for this year as well.

The 1983 game in Auburn is probably one of my favorite looking games. Florida State in white, and Auburn in blue. But wait, Auburn in orange face masks just tops it all!! The only things that would beat this is if FSU wore red, and Auburn wore the awesome striped socks that became a hit just a few years later (and they’re back! I have a pair and the basketball team wears them!!)

I know that Paul and some of you guys enjoy classic magazines and program covers. And if you read my last post on here (linked in the intro), you would know that I love Phil Neel and his drawings. Neel designed our beloved mascot Aubie the Tiger. Thankfully, I found some great covers from Neel’s time in Auburn. One thing I noticed when I found these is that there is no way they would be appropriate in today’s world (click any link to enlarge).

Hope you all enjoyed today’s post. Here’s to a heck of game tonight. You know who I’ll be cheering for!

Thanks, Clint. Obviously, we know your rooting interests tomorrow evening, but that’s OK. Good luck to both teams and goodbye to the BCS. Don’t let the door hit your …

Terry Duroncelet’s…

Bowl Roundup

Ah, yes… the Big Four. No, not that Big Four, THIS Big Four! The games that make you want to leave the comfort of your bed on NYD after you swear to never partake in “Amateur Night” again, and plop down in front of the T.V. to see sights like this.

My all-time favorite bowl game, for many reasons. The parades, the gorgeous stadium, and the fact that it’s based in my home State of California are just a few of those reasons. Oh, and something about roses smelling good or whatever. This year’s contest was the 100th in its existence, and would pit the Michigan State University Spartans against the Leland Stanford Junior University Cardinal. Michigan State wore an all-green ensemble, and Stanford likewise, but in white. Now, this was a good-looking game IMO, but not as good as it would have been if Michigan State had worn this and Stanford in this. One of the Spartan players had a chin cup sleeve with the Rose Bowl logo on it. That’s all I could really catch, but the game was a good one nonetheless, with first-time Spartan starter Kyler Elsworth (#41) making one of the biggest plays in recent memory. That very stop would seal Michigan State’s 24-20 win. This also marks the first time since the 2010 Rose Bowl Game that a B1G team won, and only the third time since the 2000 edition of the contest that a Big Ten team won it (Stanford would lose to Wisconsin on NYD 2000, 17-9). Here’s to 100 more.

A major BCS bowl game. You would think this would be a perfect opportunity for the Baylor University Bears to dress their best, right? Nope. Okay, the school colors of your opponent (The University of Central Florida Knights) are black and gold, and you have the ability to avoid one of those colors. Why then, would you wear the same colors as your opponent? WHY??? WHY??? I would’ve gone green/green/gold, personally. But regardless, that’s what Baylor wore: shiny-gold/black/black, while UCF wore all-white. Who says good guys wear black?

I love a simple, well-put together uniform. I especially love it when there are a good number of these unis. Some are going to inadvertently look very similar, and that’s fine. But put them together in the same game? Not so much. It’s a sad day when you see these two teams play, and you can’t find joy in the look of the game. Not much that they could do about that, but it looked very much like an intersquad game. Anyway, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide wore their crimson helmets and jerseys with white pants, while the University of Oklahoma Sooners wore their dark red helmets with white jerseys and pants (I still wish that they were more of a cream color). Not much else to say here, sadly.

THE Ohio State University Buckeyes thought it would be a great idea to wear their 2012 Pro Combat uniforms for this game. Eh, I like the numbers, but that’s really about it. The rest I can take or leave. But I have a really cool note from reader Benji Boyter regarding the Clemson University Tigers, who wore orange helmets, white jerseys, and orange pants:

“Clemson wore their orange pants in last night’s Orange Bowl against TOSU. The last time Clemson wore orange pants was against WVU in the Orange Bowl two years ago (which we lost 70-33, so they didn’t exactly bring us luck back then). This makes the first time since the 2009 season Clemson wore all three possible pant colors in a season (white pants in each game except the game against The Citadel, in which we wore mono-purple for Military Appreciation Day, and orange last night). This also marks the first time since the 2007 season Clemson has worn white tops over orange pants. Not sure how many times we did it that year but I know we did it against NC State on the road that year.”

Well, it turns out that this was Clemson’s year to say “This game has ORANGE and not SCARLET & GREY in its name for a reason!”. Clemson would win this contest in great fashion, 40-35.

And there you have it! Another year of BCS bowling in the books… except for that one last page. See ya Saturday.

Duck Tracker

With an appearance in the *Alamo* Bowl, the Oregon Ducks introduced a new uniform (the style of which should be used for the next two seasons, if all goes according to their usual plan). You can take a look at the two sets they recently introduced in this set.

Our Duck Tracker for the past several years has been Tim E. O’Brien, and here is what that Bowl uniform looked like, graphically:

Here’s Tim with a few words:

“Well the mallards pulled out all the stops for this bowl game. Unveiling two full uniforms, Oregon debuted new shoulder wings and pants all on a new template.”

Unfortunately, Tim’s moved into a new apartment which is, for now, without Internet, so he couldn’t give a more full opinion/description. That little bit above was sent via his cell.

My thanks to Tim E. for undertaking the Duck Tracking all season (again). Unfortunately for the Ducks, their season ended not in Pasadena but San Antonio. Hey, you guys didn’t want the Rose Bowl — and you got it.

And that’s it for today folks. Thanks to Clint for the BCS National Championship Game preview, TJ for the Bowl wraps, and Tim E. O’Brien for his Duck Tracking all year long.

Two more big NFL games today (and both should have their fair share of chilly weather): Bengals host the Chargers at 1:05 (ET) and in the nightcap, in what should be -200 degree windchills, Green Bay will attempt to use the *frozen* tundra to its advantage against the Niners. Should be fun. Everyone have a great week and I will catch you next weekend (with what I expect to be some great stuff — stay tuned!).

48 comments to Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends

I see the Auburn-FSU game in the first program cover shown (the smoke signal one) was scheduled for 11/23/63, the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. Interesting coincidence here, given the recent 50th anniversary coverage, but was that game actually played on that date? I know the NFL controversially went ahead with games on that Sunday, the 24th…

Auburn did indeed play that weekend. Check out thewareaglereader.com some time and search for it. There are two articles I can remember off the top of my head. The first one shows a picture of the flag at half-staff because of JFK. The other one features a letter to the Plainsman (the student newspaper) from some girls that thought Auburn didn’t do enough to honor JFK. Some good stuff

Nice to see that FSU fans bring the class to all corners of the internet, including UniWatch. War Eagle! It will be one of the better looking NC games of the BCS era, and I for one am glad it’s a Garnet on White matchup. IMO those are the best looks for both teams.

James|
January 5, 2014 at 10:44 am |

For any issues with the NCAA, the BCS is not their doing. It is solely the doing of 1-A scools. NCAA has a playoff for D-1 (AA) schools and North Dakota State won it yesterday.

Judy A|
January 5, 2014 at 2:40 pm |

Much to my dismay, since I’m a graduate of Towson.

Andrew Y.|
January 5, 2014 at 10:51 am |

I have to say that the Sugar Bowl game (or whatever it is called) between Oklahoma and Alabama was classic and so were the uniforms. Both teams kept it simple and old school tradition. Just perfect. Everyone has an opinion so just wanted to say I disagree with Terry on this one. Strongly.

I’m a Cane and hated our helmets against UL. They were the only thing worse than our performance that night.

Chris|
January 7, 2014 at 5:18 am |

I agree, thought the game was great uni-wise. And great…game-wise (live just outside of Norman). Oh, and so Alabama can be crimson, but OU (CRIMSON and cream) is dark red? Really? TRY HARDER.

Erik S.|
January 5, 2014 at 10:53 am |

Just a heads up, the photo of the set up at Fenway for the Outdoor Gimmick Game is not BC/Notre Dame but instead from the Providence/Merrimack game…of course here in Hockey East country everything is BC first so I am used to it.

LarryB|
January 5, 2014 at 11:02 am |

Good stuff today.Thanks Clint and Terry who did a great job this year on college football.

I agree with Terry on Ohio States so called rivalry unis. I was asked by a PSU cousin if I liked them. I said they are ok but no big deal. I prefer the regular unis. I really wish Ohio State would bring back the traditional gray sleeves.

Paul Stave|
January 5, 2014 at 11:12 am |

Forty- whiner fans need to quit whining about playing in chilly weather. They did not win their division, plain and simple.

Forty-whiner fans need to quit whining about playing in chilly weather. They did not win their division, plain and simple.

Randy|
January 5, 2014 at 11:24 am |

I agree.
Please don’t complain that the situation is unfair. Rules are rules, and they are followed. If you are going to complain, please complain about the playoff seeding rules, not just this one situation of cold weather.

Brinke|
January 5, 2014 at 1:11 pm |

Forty Whiner! Haven’t heard that one! Thanks for posting it twice!

arrScott|
January 5, 2014 at 7:34 pm |

I’m rooting for the Niners here, but I love the “Forty Whiners” thing. Can’t play in the cold? Then you’re not prepared to play football. Go get a glove and a bat.

Heisenberg|
January 5, 2014 at 11:15 am |

The Noles don’t wear ‘red’, they wear GARNET AND GOLD!

LarryB|
January 5, 2014 at 11:24 am |

Interesting Northwestern helmet info from Larry. I enjoy his Hail to the Purple site. I am pretty sure the Wildcats went back and forth with plastic and leather helmets for a bit. Sort of like Notre Dame did.

The colors look close to the Bears uniforms from the 20’s, I am trying to figure out if the black and orange is supposed to be the Providence Steamrollers or the Cincinnati Celts. Its not exactly right, but looks dang close.

Willard|
January 5, 2014 at 11:48 am |

Though I disliked the canes helmet also, I found that facemask to be kickass.

Agreed on the ohio st sleeves. The grey striped sleeves were classic and aesthetically superior to the red and black.

Douglas King|
January 5, 2014 at 3:34 pm |

I feel they are superior to the regular sleeve stripes, but I think the pro combat rendition of the sleeves are superior to the grey sleeves. I like that the stripes are standardized (same stripes on the helmet, pants and sleeves), but I think they could add some grey to the current look.

LarryB|
January 5, 2014 at 5:44 pm |

I say they already have that pattern on the helmets and pants. So that is a reason why I say have the gray on sleeves. Plus I think the old gray looks better.

They had been first used around 1946 or 47.

I understand what you are saying.

Rich A|
January 5, 2014 at 12:04 pm |

well, I’ll probably post this for the dozen-th time. Oregon hasnt ditched the two tone facemasks entirely. however they have ditched the two tone facemasks featuring chrome, and modified a couple helmet designs to now have solid facemasks. the yellow helmets switched from chrome to silver wings because of it, green helmets switch from bright green chrome to a black fading to silver wings. its the same reason Michigan State wore a black facemask in their HGI Green Chrome helmets. players did not like the glare when playing. not sure why Baylor decided to stick with it. not worn at all past season, I can only assume Oregon has ditched the Chrome Rose Bowl helmets as well as Chrome/ Carbon Fiber helmets.

Douglas King|
January 5, 2014 at 3:32 pm |

Yeah they ditched the chrome in favor of a color that better matched the silver on their jerseys. I don’t believe they wore chrome at all this season. HGI responded to a question someone had about this switch, and it didn’t sound like it was necessarily a permanent change, but one they made for this past season (I think they will stick with the new non-chrome look, even if they switch up the effect on the wings).

donn|
January 5, 2014 at 12:41 pm |

Phil overstates things when he complains that the BCS has many times overlooked undefeated teams. In 2004, undefeated Auburn was perhaps unfairly excluded. While other unbeated teams have not played in the championship, I doubt that anybody would argue that those teams deserved to be in the BCS championship game. And moving to a playoff system does not guarantee that undefeated teams will not similarly be excluded going forward.

Phil Hecken|
January 5, 2014 at 1:39 pm |

“I doubt that anybody would argue that those teams deserved to be in the BCS championship game.””

~~~

Oh, this again.

Maybe. Maybe, for example TCU (2009 season) didn’t even deserve consideration, but unless someone actually beats them, how would we know? Maybe Boise State doesn’t deserve their 2006 (and who can forget that Bowl game where they beat Oklahoma) snub. Maybe.

I’m not saying either team (just two examples) would have won, but arbitrarily excluding them doesn’t help the BCS case.

I’m not all that thrilled about a playoff (wish things could just go back to the pre-1990s way of doing things), but it’s gotta be better than what we have now.

~~~~~~~

“And moving to a playoff system does not guarantee that undefeated teams will not similarly be excluded going forward.”

~~~

You’re correct there. Nothing guarantees anything, but the chances of an undefeated team (even, say an NIU) being excluded from a 4-team playoff are far less than under the 1-2 game we have now.

Douglas King|
January 5, 2014 at 3:25 pm |

“And moving to a playoff system does not guarantee that undefeated teams will not similarly be excluded going forward.”

—-

Except they probably won’t. The way the NCAA is currently set up it is highly unlikely that more than 4 great teams will go undefeated. This year it looked like the Playoff System was going to come a year too late, but then November happened and we were down to 2 undefeated teams, and that was remedied with the Conference championship games (if Mizzou and Auburn hadn’t played there would be a lot of debate over who should be playing FSU, but they did and one wound up with 2 losses).

Ideally we’d have an 8-team system (or at least a 6-team system with byes), because I think more than 4 teams this year had an argument for competing for the title (with only 2 having a legitimate claim to the top 2 seeds), but worthy undefeated teams will not be excluded from the playoffs in the new system like they were in the BCS. And for the record I don’t consider last year’s NIU to have been a worthy undefeated team (however Boise and TCU in 2009 would have been worthy of consideration).

Just think how many times in the BCS era have there been 4 undefeated teams at the end of the regular season? I believe the answer is once (5 in 2009, 2 were from mid-major conferences, and 1 was from the Big East), the most they got before then was in 2004 (3).

The new system is better than the old systems. Remember pre-BCS in 1994 when Penn State and Nebraska went undefeated but didn’t play each other and Nebraska was voted unanimous national champ with Penn State finishing #2 (they had the #1 vs. the #3, while the #2 played #12), or in 1990 when Georgia Tech went 11-0-1 and Colorado went 11-1-1 (really 9-3-1, when you factor in the phantom block in the back in the bowl game, and the 5 downs mess at Mizzou), and Tech wound up winning the Coaches poll by 1 vote (cast by the only guy who played both teams), and the AP overwhelmingly voted for Colorado). Any system where #1 and #2 play on new year’s day against anyone other than each other, you have a bad system. The BCS was not the answer but it was a better attempt at it than when all major bowls were tie-ins and thus the top teams didn’t play each other.

Uggh, just go with the Orange Jerseys as the home, and switch the black to alternates.

Owen Meany|
January 5, 2014 at 3:31 pm |

Or even better, just start over. What a mess.

Douglas King|
January 5, 2014 at 4:39 pm |

Aaron Rodgers’s Captain Patch has the Gold C, first time that has happened for a Packers player.

Brinke|
January 5, 2014 at 4:47 pm |

Harbaugh is not wearing a coat. Sweatshirt, gloves, and a skimask thing. I do not believe it.

Wait, I do.

Micah|
January 5, 2014 at 6:12 pm |

Have to say what everyone says, especially as a Noles fan, its GARNET and gold! Red is what the Georgia Bulldogs are. Referring to the Bungles, it doesn’t matter what unis they wear, they will still always suck. Choke job again at home.

arrScott|
January 5, 2014 at 7:39 pm |

It’s red.

Have we really forgotten that the English language has actual words and definitions and stuff?

“Garnet” is not wrong, but garnet is a kind of red. Just as gold is a kind of yellow. So “red” is not wrong either, just as it’s not wrong to note that the playoff game on TV right now features two teams playing in yellow on a field whose grass has mostly turned yellow.

Chris|
January 7, 2014 at 5:23 am |

Gonna disagree. In reality, you’re almost certainly right, garnet is red, just as crimson is a red. But when it’s specifically stated in the school colors to be a distinct red, that’s where I think specificity in description is necessary.

You need to upload those to somewhere because you can’t post them here straight from your hard drive. Try Flickr, maybe?

Curt|
January 5, 2014 at 7:15 pm |

Can’t believe nobody mentioned that Clemson started out white-over-white in pregame, but switched to white-over-orange before they came out of the tunnel. I’ve heard of teams switching jerseys in the locker room (i.e. Notre Dame going from navy to green), but can’t recall another team switching pants. It’s probably happened, but I thought that was odd. A welcome sight though…the white over orange looks 10x better than white over white.